Hey people its my first time commenting on the blog but I have been on this continously since last December. Best sports blog I have found on the net. Im in Sweden right now and this is my only link to the Laker world. No Vic the Brick out here lots of blondes though so Im not complainin.

As for the Queens... Bring it! I hope the Kings are just as good as the Lakers this season. Thats at always been my favorite rivalry over the past years and lately it has lost some of its fire. If the Lakers and Kings are battling for post season position down the stretch and the Lakers happen to knock them into a lower seed or out altogether that would be so F'ING AWESOME!!!
As for Bonzi Wells, he is a talented player. I think he underachieves at times. If he had resigned with the Kings he may have lost the drive that he displayed in the playoffs and just coasted or cruised happy to just be getting paid. Maybe on another team he will have more to prove.

To SonnyBeltfast: Why do you always come on this blog and hate on the Lakers and Kobe dude? Dont you have some cows to herd and some corn to grow homeboy... j/k. I think your neato. Entertaining at least.

Peace & Love

Thanks BK, its good to be talking about the upcoming season rather than just speculating about endless trade scenarios that will never happen. I think the west will be a dog fight. Here's my take:

1st tier: San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix
2nd tier: Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets, Kings
3rd tier: Rockets, Grizzlies*, Jazz, Hornets
4th tier: Sonics, Warriors, Blazers
(Grizz move up to 2nd tier when Gasol gets back)

What a damper of an assessment for Sonnybelfast's Sac Queens. There you are Sonnyboy. A realistic and non-rose colored glasses view of your team. They can have Bonzi back for all i care (sorry Laker Tom).

the queens at best will probably be in the 8th or 9th spot in the west..

the loss of bonzi wells in their backcourt is huge..
i dont know about kevin martin, but i see that he is a young player with talent..

i completely agree with you BK that these queens wont even come close to our lakers squad..

go kobe!

go lakers!

Good post BK. But, I would be prepared for Sonny to throw a few cowbells at you. I mean you're saying that the team from "God's Country" isn't as good as LA. lol

BK,
I agree that the Queens have a hard time passing our beloved Lakers. The two wild cards for them will be how well the players respond to Musselman - he is more of a disciplinarian. More importantly is does Ron Ron remain a good team player or does he start to go T.O. on the Kings? They could be scary but I just doubt that they can pull it off, everything would have to break just right for the Kings to be a serious player in the playoffs. GO LAKERS!

It's too bad for Adelman he could never overcome the Lakers in his years in Sacramento. As much as I loathe the Kings, I have to admit that he did a very good job up there. Oh well, I hope they never win another game.

BK,

Great meth habit reference, never a bad time for one of those.

As for the Kings, I have them about the same as Lakers so I have to agree with your comments. My guess, with everyone healthy on both squads, deciding which team will do better this season is a coin flip.

Good to hear Smush working out with Kobe, I'm rooting for him to come back from that disappointing ending to last season.

BK,
Great analysis. Losing Bonzi won't be the end of the world for Sac. Kevin Martin is nice and gets better every year. One thing Sac has done much better than the Lakers is draft good young talent. Martin, Salmons, Garcia, and Douby should be able to pick up some of the slack. However, like BK mentioned, to take any kind of a dip in talent when most of the West teams made improvements could be killer.
And although the Kings have some decent young talent, Bibby and Miller look like they are about to slow down and looked (especially) bad on defense last year. Lucky for them, Artest will keep them in the hunt. Without him, this team wouldve been really bad.
If all the teams remain completely healthy (esp those Rockets), I expect the Kings to get the 8th or 9th spot....and closer to the 9th.

Pfunk,

I believe this is who'll be interviewing Kobe in Seoul. Thought you'd be interested.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jXSL1-uaEzs

AK

the queens are the queens. how they call themselves the kings if they have never won a title? kings of what (that goes for the l.a. hockey team as well).

off subject, but when is team usa going to truly put out their best possible squad?

RM,

That's a good point. That Queens will be tough this year. I do like the Lakers line-up better. I hope Kwame can stand up to Miller this year and muscle him around a little. That'll be the key to beating the Queens in my opinion.

great writeup. it pains me the most to see artest on the kings. i really liked artest for his nitty gritty D, and physical play, and well, him being on the kings now brings down his likeability factor. granted the kings are nowhere near the 2002 kings team, but i still can't root for them or their cowbells.

RM...

they might have better talent on paper, but we'll see who's still got their same starting 5 come january.

on a sidenote, why does that hatred for sacto still remain? it's not like they're much of a threat for the lakers. why is it that i can't stand the kings or their fans? i don't have nearly the same hatred for the jazz who swept us out of consecutive playoffs appearances?

Rocky,

Actually, Kwame muscling Brad Miller around doesn't help much since Miller is one of the centers who spends most of the time on the perimeter. He's probably the best passing center in the league, and he has an above average outside shot. The problem this causes us is that drawing Kwame away from the basket takes away his biggest strength, one-on-one post defense. I think we saw Phoenix exploit this to it's maximum in the playoffs last year.

wiZo,

I read recently that Bibby has spent the off-season getting in shape and losing weight. He mentioned that he's the lightest and quickest he's been since college, so that throws the "slowing down" theory out the window.

I do believe the Lakers are better at this moment, but not by much, and really, if the Kings ended up better it wouldn't be a huge shock to me.

Kobe's coming to Korea!!!!!!! sweet!!!!!!
great post BK

Not that this has any relevance at all to this discussion, but I read a comment from a fan on another website that asked the question of where we would be if we hadn't released Brian Grant with that "Allen Houston Rule". Obviously Dr. Buss saved $15 million and more power to him for doing that, but you have to think that a $15 million expiring contract at the trade deadline this year would be a pretty valuable commodity to have, especially in a year where KG is basically at a make it or break it point with the Wolves, amongst other players who could help us.

I mean, you take the $15 million from Grant, and there is a possibility a package for KG could be made without including LO. I just think that it would have been nice to have that option.

But since it's obviously day dreaming, forget I ever said anything.

I could care less about those queens. I do think they will do well just like Bk said, but this laker team will kick their sorry a**es. I dont even understand letting Adelman go and signing musselman, those guys in the locker room wont give him the respect he will need to run the team. Signing Nelson to this team will make more of a sense. He's the best coach not coaching when he was out, but the warriorrs did the job by picking him up.

Go Kobe, boy is doing so much work this summer and hes doing a great job. Im saying it, Kobe will be 06-07 mvp, and this will be due to him doing what he does on the court, and his summer work. Im starting to forget Kobe past troubles, and that is a good thing cuz we can all start judging by what he does on the court.

Like Taliq says,

In Kobe we Trust,
Go Lakers

Rocky,

Kwame and "consistent" have gone together like oil and water thus far in his career. I'm right there with you hoping that he gets it between the ears this year and helps us win a few more games.

Good point about Miller shooting 20 footers. I guess that wouldn't be all that bad.

AK why isnt the latimes covering kobe on his 81 asia tour,why only report the negative news on him?

http://www.sactownroyalty.com/

Sonny,
I remember you saying that there's not much to be found for Queens blogs earlier in the year.

Just thought I'd post for your pleasure. A blog that was, in fact, referred on this here Laker Blog way early in the season. I've continually gone back because..well..the guy writes a pretty informed and quite entertaining blog. In case you didn't already know about it. They'll even keep you up to date on the new stadium and such. Topics that matter not to me.

Recently entertaining posts.

"Go away, Bonzi. Just go away."
and
"Sprewell didn't hate PJ Carlesimo. He had the hots for him."

Edwin,

I'll take one more swing at the dead horse. I think trading Mihm would be a bad idea, even for a first round pick. This is all based on the fact that I do not think Andrew Bynum is ready to contribute 18-25 minutes of productive basketball at an NBA level yet, and that leaves Kwame Brown as our only five and that scares the crap out of me.

Some wonder if we don't trade him would we lose him for nothing at the end of the season and I don't agree with that statement. I think if we don't trade him we get one of the best back-up centers in the league for an entire season where we are trying to advance in the playoffs. A player like Chris Mihm is going to be extremely helpful.

If the ultimate goal of this franchise is to build on the success they had last year, trading away a big man who contributed quite a bit is not the way to go. I still see Bynum getting 5-10 minutes a game, mostly in garbage time or early on in competitive games, and Chris Mihm splitting time between the 4 and 5. If at the end of the season he wants to walk, that's fine. We get a year of service from a hard working guy in a contract year, and his salary off the books when his contract expires. It's a win-win if you ask me.

AK,
This is completely off the subject, but it bothers me. Do you or anyone know who's responsible for choosing the photos for NBA's PHOTO of the YEAR contest or how they're chosen?? Kobe's contest photo does not in any way represent the sick moves he's made on the court this past season....and I know they were all photographed. Seems like he's being set up to lose against D-Wade, Lebron and others. I'm sure other players may be in the same boat, but it's an injustice to all not to enter the best photos available. (especially Kobe's photos)

AZ,

I agree with you.

During the Labor Day Weekend, there was another round of Mihm trade with Darius Miles. No way with Miles, but if there is any to unload him is at this time when Grizzlies needs badly a substitute for the injured Pau Gasol. As i said in my post, I would hold on to Mihm as an insurance to Andrew and Kwame who are both 50-50. Secondly, I like Mihm as the second defender in the post to block shots that escapes from defense of Vlad and LO. With that kind of hidden defender strategy, he avoids committing fouls on one-on-one defense. I'll think he will contribute 12/10 this year as a substitute.

Rocky,

Here's the news about Darius Miles from the Oregonian that he has bad knees. Hmmn, another Brian Grant's knees, he's too young to have bad knees.

http://www.oregonlive.com/canzano/index.ssf?/mtlogs/olive_JohnCanzano/archives/2006_09.html

BK:

Nice review of the Kings. I agree with you on everything. Let me make sure about this. If you believe the best case scenario for the Kings is to slip into the six spot and you believe they will not finish ahead of the Lakers, does that mean that your best case for the Lakers is at least the number five slot? It is hard evaluating your evaluation of other teams relative to the Lakers when we don’t have your evaluation of the Lakers – at least, your “formal” evaluation. I am predicting that the Lakers will end up a the number three seed. What is your prediction? Thanks.

Tom

Gina/AK

Gina, that was an excellent question, it was one I pondered as well.

"AK why isnt the latimes covering kobe on his 81 asia tour,why only report the negative news on him?"

I just read AK's "speculation" as to why "they" the LAtimes are not covering the 81 asia tour.....he likened it to "just throwing darts".

Well let me throw some darts as well.....if you don't mind Gina?

Perhaps they NEVER offered to follow Kobe around and he never had a chance to accept or decline. Maybe they do have a spare writer ( What else is the LAKER BEATWRITER doing these days?) Maybe somebody would be smart enough to realize T-Mac is based in Houston and LA fans really could care less about his Asian Tour.......I don't know......that just makes since to me......what do you think Gina?

If Mike Bresnahan recently wrote a long piece on Kobe that focused a fair amount on Kobe's reemergence in the marketplace.....I haven't seen it......would you please post that link!!

Based on the all-star voting tabulation last year Kobe is the biggest international NBA star in the league......which is always news because that makes Kobe the number one guy with taking our sport and making it global and more diverse......which should always be interesting.

Maybe the Editors of the LAtimes are out of touch with the people of LA if they think this story isn't interesting, because it certainly is making news in Asia.

It's funny Gina, but they even seem to be more fair in reporting the news without personal slants, but what do I know.......I'm just throwing darts as well.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=320344&ssid=93&sid=SPO

Andrew Z,
Trading Mihm for a first round pick could be a smart move depending on the projected finish of the team you are trading with and the projected strength of the draft next year.

And now BK's brother (from the same mother) chimes in:

I see Bonzi’s absence as a plus and a minus. It's a minus because the dude can play. He was the squad’s best player behind Ron Artest and Mike Bibby, a pretty good rebounder for his size and can do damage to his opponents. However, it's also a plus because he often damages his own team. If you're like me (and the Maloof Brothers/Geoff Petrie seem to be), you're not particularly convinced by his "character reformation/blowing up in the playoffs during a contract year" status and envision a long term, expensive contract (like the one he's seeking) immediately reverting him back to "pain in the ass" Bonzi. Similar to how I'd never give Tim Thomas multiple years of guaranteed cheddar, I'd never offer it to Wells, either. They'll miss Wells, but not enough to chance his track record not missing a beat. They already have one theoretical ticking time bomb in Artest. They don't need another.

And speaking of Ron Ron, he’s more difficult to predict than Mel Gibson after "2 for 1 Drink Night" at a synagogue (why a temple would let Gibson hang out- or serve cocktails at such a furious rate- is indeed peculiar, but roll with me). He’s also the Kings’ best player. By a long shot. When his head is even remotely screwed on, Artest is arguably the NBA’s best two-way player. I’d bet the farm on him going goony bird again before his Sacto tenure ends, but the Kings remain optimistic (if for no other reason than they have to).

After the 2002 WCF, I begrudgingly admitted that Mike Bibby’s got huevos for days. The guy is also as skilled as he is fearless, and can stick a dagger in any team. Brad Miller is among the game’s best passing bigs and combines with Shareef Abdur-Rahim to make up a fluid front court scoring tandem (if a none-too-intimidating defensive presence, but Kenny Thomas helps). If Laker fans are lucky, Sasha Vujacic will become half the “skinny as hell player” as Kevin Martin (in ability, of course, not weight. That would be Nicole Richie thin.). Quincy Douby (another svelte cat) provides scoring in bunches. And Francisco Garcia (Seriously, send some sandwiches to the state capital ASAP!) can hit it from outside. Assuming John Salmons is the player they're hoping for, this combines for a team not to be trifled with.

But assuming the Lakers (and others) enforce a “No-Trifle” policy, Sacto's success has a ceiling. While one must give credence to the presence of new coach Eric Musselman (who damn near made Golden State a goodish team), they still don’t strike me as much more than unquestionably solid. Yeah, some would make the same argument about the Lakers, but when in doubt, tie goes the team with the best player (one Kobe Bryant). Save Artest and Bibby, the Kings don’t have anybody who can take a game over (or seems to have the desire). And if things don’t start well for whatever reason, Artest will likely get restless, which ain’t good. I picture them getting better by a few games (as will many of the teams at their heels in '06) and likely a part of the playoff picture. But I also suspect the Lakers will improve by at least a few games, so I don’t see them getting lapped, even if the race itself is more than a little sweat-inducing.

Final Verdict: Worse than the Lakers, but to paraphrase that mirror on your car, objects may appear closer than you’d prefer.

AK

If you were a GM, take your picks:

1) Ron Artest, a solid top 25 performer or
Kobe Bryant, no description needed.

2) Mike Bibby, a solid guard or Lamar Odom, a man that provides matchup problems all around.

3) Brad Miller, a pretty good player but getting older or Vlad, who is pretty good as well. This one is a toss up dependent upon what the team needs.

4) Kevin Martin, a new good talent vs Kwame Brown, who has been improving at center. I personally have started to like Kwame.. but I understand if you pick the other way.

5) Whoever or Smush. You'd probably take the whoever. It's okay. Smush will get better and he's decent even though almost everyone on this blog hates him.

Anyways, some of my reasoning sucks. But look. If you give me the WHOLE kings team against Kobe I'd take Kobe. I'm pretty sure most GMs would too. Kobe is on another level. Even trading away most of the Kings for Lamar would make me hesitate....

Bottom line... Lakers have a better team and should outperform the Kings.

The LA Times is out to get Kobe by not following him on his Asian trip. And the NBA is out to get him by not putting his best pictures in the photo-of-the-year contest. Mitch got rid of Shaq just so Kobe wouldn't win any more titles! Everybody is out to get Kobe!! Even Kobe is out to get him. Why else would he miss that shot at the end of game 6 in the playoffs?

exhelodrvr,

I see where you're coming from in regards to trading Mihm for first rounder, but I think the Grizzlies (stupid name by the way now that they're located in Memphis, but I digress) will be strong enough to have it be a mid to late first rounder, and my guess is they would avoid giving a pick in the 2007 draft, which some say is the strongest in quite some time.

I do think however that by the All-Star break or trade deadline that Mihm's value will more than likely go up, either for us or another team, based on the playoff standings.

David Whang,

I agree with exhelodrvr, each one of these teams' ability is highlighted by HUGE question marks. When everything shakes out the only thing you can count on is Kobe and for that reason I give the Lakers a slight edge.

On another note, does Francisco Garcia have the funniest voice in the NBA or what? I remember an interview after one of the NCAA Tournament games and starting rolling when I heard the guy. If you haven't heard him speak, try to find it on the internet, it's worth the effort.

Andrew Z,
"but I think the Grizzlies (stupid name by the way now that they're located in Memphis, but I digress"

Sounds like a good topic for a thread. Inappropriate team names. Grizzlies isn't as bad as Lakers, since at least they have bears in Tennessee. But neither is as bad as the Utah Jazz.

exhelodrvr,

in response to your comment about the grizzlies name being stupid now that they're in memphis:

the lakers name has its roots in minneapolis as do the dodgers from their days in brooklyn. so are the lakers and dodgers names stupid now that they both reside in los angeles?

Exholdrver,

Your "Everybody is out to get Kobe" rant made me laugh. Kudos.

AK

Taka,
Absolutely!

Speaking of the nasty north and the dirty south...hey you gotta rep your hood...know what I'm talkin about?

You'll love this one:

http://www.truwarier.com/ra.html

Thank God he's on myyyyyyyyy team. Fire it up. Bring em' on. 56 days and a wake-up!

mike t,

course not. you are one of the rare ones that has been consistent, especially with your distaste for mihm (which i honestly don't understand). there aren't that many 7 footers in the league anymore that can give you 10 pts, 6 rebounds, and more than a block in 26 minutes as well as shoot 74% from the line. and even if you dislike him why would you get rid of him? bigs are a luxury in the league. in your eyes he obviously doesn't have any trade value so you might as well keep him and get the 10 and 6.3 you can get from him.

even when kwame was playin his best (granted against a front line that started diaw in the middle) during the playoffs kwame only avged 13 and 6.5 rebounds in 32 minutes. i think mihm would be able to pick up another 3 points and a board in the extra 6 minutes.

Starter comparison:

the 1: smush vs. bibby
ok, this is easy, bibby is better. I still like smush and think he's going to surpise alot of you this year.

the 2: kobe vs. kevin martin
ok, this is easier than the first one. I dont need to say anything else.

the 3: lamar or vlad vs ron ron
now it gets a bit more complicated. Out of the three, who is the best player? Vlad gets cancelled out but i honestly cannot say that i would pick ron ron over lamar. Yes of course i am biased, but im speaking as unbiasally as i can. Ron ron is quite a talent but so is lamar. In my opinion, lamar is lebron before lebron arrived. He's big and can play basically every position, a triple double threat ever night. Ron artest is very solid on D and has some good offensive skills. Lamar is a much better passer though. If everything was to pan out perfectly (both live up to supreme potential), i belive odom would be better than ron ron. Thats just the offensive side of the ball though. On defense, its pretty close, i think. That is ron artest's fortay but we know, well atleast i do, that lamar is quite a presence as well. Without going analytical, i'll jus give the edge to artest on D. In the end though, I personally, would have to take lamar. A triple double is a beautiful thing. Plus his leadership goes unnoticed.

the 4: lamar or vlad vs. shareef
Best player of the bunch, lamar, hands down. Refer back to the 3 for his analysis. Lets jus say vlad vs. shareef (if it was lamar vs. shareef, come on now, its obvious). Shareef is more proven. He was a 20-10 or close to 20-10 type of guy for a while. Even avergaed over a steal and over a block with 20-10 for a few years, but it was never consistent. Then again, he was never on a winning team, he played hard though. He's like kenyon martin, a mid range game, some back to the basket moves, good on the boards, even flow on D (you know what you're going to get; an effot at the least). Vlad has been in the league for 5 years. The best year he had was with seattle, when he was a 12 points 5 boards and 1 steal type of guy. In his stint with the clips, he averaged 11 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and almost a steal. You can attempt to evaluate him but he wasnt always a starter in seattle. He never got conisistent playing time. He was in and out of the line up for the past two years. Seattle wasnt a winner either, not up until 2 years ago but then look what happened to them. He's never had proper structure or coaching, much like shareef, but shareef was always a starter and usually the star of the team (back in his atlanta days; who else can you name on his atlanta squad??? didnt think so). We know vlad can shoot; unlike shareef, he has an outside shot. He never shoots from anywhere else so i cant judge his mid-range or inside game. For his size, he should be able to rebound (atleast 6 or so a game, at minimum), which i think he will do. Ok, so i think shareef is a better player (though older) at this point, but vlad can still turn into a bigger force. So i guess its all even. What it comes down to is what would you rather have? Shareef on a sacramento team with more weapons, used more often than him or vlad on the lakers, with penatrators and drive n dish oppurtunites which sets up wide open shots which happpens to be your fortay plus you practice and better your shot (i hope)? Again, the least bias possible, gotta go with vlad. Damn, that was long, sorry.

the 5: kwame vs. brad
You know what brad brings, he's pretty good in my estimation. Kwame is kind of like vlad, never had the system or coaching, now he does. We know what he did during the second half of the season. We are all banking on him doing that and atleast a tad bit more this year. Throw in youth, brad has alot of knee problems while kwame is barely becoming a man. Compare defense, kwame may not get blocks, but he can guard pretty well. Brad is ok, nothing special though, atleast i dont think so. Defensive edge goes to kwame. Rebounding, almost even par but brad's stats are a lil better. Again we're banking on kwame being able to produce atleast one or two more boards which will equal them out. Kwame still has potential to grow and improve, mature. Brad is brad. Better offensive moves, no doubt. I dont know, you guys tell me which one you would take. I'm leaning more towards kwame but maybe thats jus gut reaction because im a laker.

Anywho, i think AK's assesment was pretty good. We're gonna be better than the queens, you better trust and believe. Ok, this is waaayyyyy to long, sorry.

p.s. - taliq, completely agree with everything u've said and if u dont mind, im borrowing your phrase, in kobe we trust. Ya damn right!!!

OK, lets get something perfectly clear....the Queens have never been nor will they ever be better than the Lakers. If you think that Sacramento is better than the Lakers (ahhhhem RM & Sonny) then you are somewhat retarded. Lets be real, no one on that squad can guard Kobe (even Artest, proven last season) and Kwame is going to be throwing their bigs around like rag-dolls. Bibby and abdul-raheem are both deteriorating fast and the queens just don't have it. Get over it.

R.I.P. Shoutout to my man Steve the crock hunter, huge loss, may he rest in peace and his legacy live on forever, bless his family.

taka,

O yeah, I keep on forgetting about Mihm's 7 foot advantage. You're right about that. But I still don't believe he's worth a 1st rounder in a trade proposal, unless Jerry West does us a favor. With the Memphis center going down for 3 months you would think they would be interested in Mihm. Then, add the fact that Mitch is Jerry's student, why would Jerry inquire about Mihm? With that said, I bet Jerry doesn't. Jerry West is a hard man, hardcore basketball man...he wouldn't take Mihm.

Years ago when Jerry was coach of the Lakers, the Lakers traded for a guy named Ernie DiGregorio. The guy was an excitement type player. He was a play maker. Well, anyway, I remember the Lakers trading for him during West's tenture as coach. I remember reading that Jerry wasn't happy with that pick up because Ernie D. couldn't play any defense. Ernie D. got cut.

Moral of the story? Well, just let me say...Jerry wouldn't touch Mihm even though he's in despreate need of a center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_DiGregorio

mike

Gina:

Or they just might not like Kobe as suspected.

Tom

Edwin:

Don’t worry. If a bad contract and bad attitude don’t deter the Miles fan club, why should bad knees?

Tom

I would field the following and make Kobe and Chauncey captains:

PF/ Centers:
Amare, Howard, Brand, Miller, Lamar

SF:
Melo, Lebron, Lamar,

SG:
Kobe, Wade

PG:
CP3, Billups

AK

Remeber how I wasn't getting you calling the SONICS the enemy or putting them in the same LEVEL as NOK and da JAAZ? I tell ya I GET this:"know thy enemy: SACRAMENTO" They are the enemy. the ONE and ONLY and ALWAYS.

SCTO QUEENS: the KINGS of the LIST, LAKERS will be watching for this year

there are a FEW LAKER killers in this league. They play their BEST when they suit up aginst the P&G and won't seem to be able to MISS. the KING of whom is MAIKE "the snake" BIBBY. how many times have you seen MIKE bringing up the BALL, get a high PICK from one of the big men, STEP BACK and hit a DEVESTATING THREE against us. I hate (LOVE it as a LAKER fan) the AQUSITION of EricMusleman for their team. If the EGOSS get inot the WAY of PLAYERS' CHEMISTRY, Eric will be as good as he was when the WARRIOR chemistry wasn't INTACT. OTHERWISE, I think if this team STAYS together and ACCEPT Artest as their leader, MUSLE can help them with their basketball CHEMISTRY. E-MUSS will get them ready for any situation they'll face running their FAVORITE (PRINCTON) style of offense. the PROBLEM would only be if they LOOSE their FAITH in the LEADERSHIP ability of JUNGLE RON in which case hiring MUSS will be a big MISS. SACTOs ARE ONE OF THE FEW NBA TEAMS, WITH A ROSTER ABLE TO WIN THE WORLD GAMEs. They will be DEEP and will have a POISENOUS STING on the OFFENSIVE side. their 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 wil kill you on the PREMETER, they'll REBIE the ball and RUN AT YOU. CHEMISTRY is the(DI) key to thier SUCCESS.

I think it was a huge mistake to hire Musselman, and fire Addelman (granted I didn't like Addelman either) but at least he's a wiener (I mean a winner, seriously, just misspelled). I'm not sure how far Musselman would go...in my opinion the best years in GS are his best years...then again, I don't believe in underestimating opponents. So I'll just say, since they are a part of our division...it shouldn't and doesn't matter if they're better or we're better...we need to play our best and beat them (or beat anyone we can for that matter).

Oops, I forgot Paul Pierce on my olympic roster. I would have put Arenas in over him, but I think Gil assassinated his Olympic self.

Exhelodrvr:

“The LA Times is out to get Kobe by not following him on his Asian trip. And the NBA is out to get him by not putting his best pictures in the photo-of-the-year contest. Mitch got rid of Shaq just so Kobe wouldn't win any more titles! Everybody is out to get Kobe!! Even Kobe is out to get him. Why else would he miss that shot at the end of game 6 in the playoffs?”

Ex, I’m really worried about you. Psychiatrists say that being obsessively pessimistic often can lead to serious depression as well as fanatical fixation on outrageous conspiracy theories. And we know what you think about “fanatics.” I hope you are going to be OK. Why don’t you repeat after me…"The Kid II will save the day…The Kid II will save the day….The Kid II…"

Tom

Taka you are spot on with your observation that many of the Laker faithful devalue certain players (Mihm, Smush, Kwame fill in the blank) in one sentence and in the next they are making them out to be the hottest commodity on the trading block.

I like Mihm myself and wouldnt trade him, some of you guys are selling the guy short when it comes to his play. He plays hard and is more consistent then Kwame. Kwame plays soft. Dude looks lost half the time he is on the court the other half of the time I swear he is doing everything he can to not get the ball in his hands. The guy is 7 foot and misses layups more then any player I have ever seen. He is the second coming of Elden Campbell except he fumbles more balls then good old baby huey.
We should give Kwame his minutes let him put up some numbers and at the first chance contact Isiah or another sucker manager and unload him.

Peace & Love

Marcus,

No, I was just playing. I've said many times that I think people lost sight of how good a season Smush actually had, in terms of what could realistically be expected. Ideally, I still think he's a back up point guard. But I also don't think he truly hurt the team until the playoffs, either. Up until then, he found ways to at least offset some of his deficiencies.

And as you mentioned, Smush gets a shot at redeeming himself. A lot lies in his own hands (and mind).

AK

Notice how I'm not jumping in to the Smush discussion? Some restraint huh? LOL...jk

Lakertom, is that for real? too lazy to check it out...but if Lakers really is defined by that... FREAKY!